What's the Point?

[GH123]

I'm 15 years old, and have high pitch ringing tinnitus. Your hearing gets worse with age. Where the hell will I be when I'm 20? Will my tinnitus sound like a fucking speaker next to my ear. It's not fair. I will be deaf by the time I'm 30 I'm guessing. Can't hear past 15 kHz and it's not like your hearing gets better, only worse. I cut out caffeine, and I exercise. Doesn't do shit.

Before you give me the "I habituated to insanely loud T". It probably happened late in your life. I haven't even graduated high school for fucks sake. No hope.

 

[Michael Sullivan]

I feel you man. I'm having the same thoughts. I'm a senior in high school and T hit me recently. 15khz doesn't mean shit. We only need to hear between 250khz -8000khz. That's everything we hear on a daily basis. I hear up to 15khz too but I have good hearing. How do you think you got T? Is your hearing on an audio gram normal?

 

[GH123]

I feel you man. I'm having the same thoughts. I'm a senior in high school and T hit me recently. 15khz doesn't mean shit. We only need to hear between 250khz -8000khz. That's everything we hear on a daily basis. I hear up to 15khz too but I have good hearing. How do you think you got T? Is your hearing on an audio gram normal?

My normal audio gram was fine. ENT just said it was high freq hearing loss. Probably using gaming headset for long hours for about 3-4 years. Doctor said give it 6 months. 4 months down no improvement. Since mine is prolonged exposure over years it will 99.99% never heal.

 

[Michael Sullivan]

As far as T is concerned yeah I don't know mine just started. Sometimes it gets louder other times it's quiet. How loud is the T on a scale of 1-10? I mean the doctor said give it 6 months so maybe just wait. It's true T might not go away or it might. You and me are young so if anyone can get healed it would be younger people. @GH123

 

[GregCA]

My normal audio gram was fine. ENT just said it was high freq hearing loss.

How did he come to that conclusion if your normal audiogram was normal?
You can do a high frequency audiogram to test frequencies above 8 kHz and confirm HF hearing loss. I'm not saying he's wrong, but it seems like it's just a guess and you could easily confirm it.

Probably using gaming headset for long hours for about 3-4 years.

It's possible, but long term exposure to sound doesn't typically show as HF hearing loss: it's more like a dip around 4 kHz.

It seems to me that digging a little deeper for a more convincing diagnosis may be a good idea.

 

[Karl28]

Your 15.

In 10 years time there could be a treatment finally

 

[Kibakiru]

Hi there~

I'm 16-years-old and have both Pulsatile and regular Tinnitus. I have a loud dog whistle(ever searched on youtube for the sound of one? It's not the most pleasant sound)/fire-alarm in my left ear and a loud wind noise (like sticking your head out a car window) in my right, along with the vibration that comes with it.
I actually did 'habituate' or rather I am in the process of doing so. I still study and am going to attend college soon, and I often sit in 'my silence' (not true silence but my version of silence, where the sounds are there but I'm not listening to them) to focus on these tasks. It's really not impossible - you just have to change your mentality. Which, yes, is easier said than done; but really not impossible. It may take a while, but the sooner it is accepted, the faster you'll begin to habituate.

You likely won't go deaf. I had many anxiety attacks over that as well(roughly my full story and hopefully some helpful stuff is in a post I made in this thread: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...se-tinnitus-is-breaking-me.20497/#post-237182).

Like others have said, you're young and have a better chance of recovering from this. Tinnitus often settles down and becomes less loud over time once you stop stressing over it. The best we can do is mask it for now.

I'm sorry that you're going through this at such a young age, but you will get better. It's a journey that every single one of us have to go on. It seems hopeless in the beginning, but it's not all for not.

 

[GH123]

As far as T is concerned yeah I don't know mine just started. Sometimes it gets louder other times it's quiet. How loud is the T on a scale of 1-10? I mean the doctor said give it 6 months so maybe just wait. It's true T might not go away or it might. You and me are young so if anyone can get healed it would be younger people. @GH123

3-4 months

 

[hans799]

Actually the younger you are, the better chances you have of adapting. A teenage brain can change much faster than a 50-year-old brain.

Also, it has been shown by studies that age-related hearing loss does NOT increase tinnitus. So don't worry about that.

Adapt to your current T, protect your ears from now on and you'll be fine.

 

[Paul10]

Your hearing getting worse does not necessarily mean your T will get worse. There are people (like me) with good hearing who also have T and there are deaf people without T. I am a young man but older than you; take comfort in knowing that hearing and T research became very fast moving in 2016. You will not spend your life with T; either it will go on it's own, you will habituate, you will find the solution for your T (you NEED to speak an audiologist/hearing therapist who specialises in T to find this along with a psychiatrist, not just an ENT) or a medical solution to T will be found sooner or later. I am having a bad few days, I am new to T, my T resonates through my head, it makes me panic, fearful, sad, angry. I've been in cold sweats, body shaking, feeling terrified and alone, feeling as though I couldn't go another hour, feeling as though I couldn't get myself out of bed without vomiting. But I have medication and support now. Does it magically remove all my worries? Nope. I can feel my stomach rising with anxiety right now, I can feel my fear growing, but I know I haven't taken my medication or left my house today; I will force myself to do this as I need sensory stimulation (seeing things, hearing other things - even though it doesn't mask my T -, smelling things). Think of it this way - there are people that need you around. I had the big 'S' word float into my head more than once, but what does that do? It simply moves your problems from you onto the ones you love. The worse of your T is temporary. I'm new to all this, but I now know the power of positivity. I know how important it is to the plasticity of the brain. Be positive even if you don't feel it. Smile even if you don't feel like doing it. Trust me - I know how you feel. Be positive and refuse to read negative posts or let negative thoughts dominate your view of T. Good luck and God bless your recovery.

 

[glynis]

@GH123,
Sorry to hear you are so young with tinnitus and even though the in the future you will adapt ,its the here and now that tinnitus causes most problems and make your emotions play up and anxiety take hold.

Please try not use foul language as not nice to read even though your just venting your feelings.( I work in a school and never swear and obviously give out consequences for bad language ,nothing personal )

We have a few teenagers on here that have tinnitus and at a point in life where your growing up and soon want to go clubbing etc .
Keep your ears protected above 85 db ...
There are lots of causes for tinnitus so its hard to protect yourself from them all like a ear infection,exam stress and noise exposure but by understanding about tinnitus and getting help if not sleeping or feeling low will help you cope better.

I hope you have good family support and a understanding doctor and us guys on here will give you around the clock support .

You must be in your last year at school and Sats coming up so make sure you get a letter off your doctor to show the head of year and you should get extra support if need it and help keep stress to a minnimun as will ramp up your sound.

Fingers crossed for you it goes away but look into anything that might help like downloading free sound apps but dont play them with headphones or ear phones if your tinnitus was noise induced as could irritate your aucuatic system and make your sound louder.

Keep relaxing sound on around you and keep posting for support and be able get intouch with people your own age also going through the same....
Lots of love glynis

 

[stophiss]

Unlike glynis who btw is a font of knowledge about tinnitus and so is GregCA as well....I actually like artful swearing and I am older than most here. But only if swearing is done artfully and OP, you have to practice a bit more.

OK...total BS that the young people here have tinnitus. Totally sucks and when you all are growing up, headphone usage at high volume is the norm and not the exception unlike my generation and btw, I accelerated my tinnitus with headphone usage in later life....being a competitive cyclist and training too many hours listening to buds blasting classic rock from my Ipod Shuffle.

So, OP...you have to stop headphone usage. Cold turkey is my suggestion as Michael L espouses on here. Don't temp fate further and listen to headphones as wonderful as the sound is and I feel ya as well...I have a massive iTunes collection and love music.

Here's the good news. I like what you wrote OP as you contemplate your future. You know what your future will look like? Very few here can even fathom. It will be more of a virtual world with super computers and robots in 50 years that will look and act like humans only smarter. Tinnitus will be solved or at least minimized...either through stem cell regrowth of your broken hearing apparatus or....hacking your auditory cortex to tune out the annoying buzz we all hear.

So OP and other young people here, be excited about your future. Hell if a cure or therapy doesn't come for another 5 years, you may even miss your tinnitus you will be so used to it. I have had tinnitus for 11 months now and contracted it later in life. Its more of an annoyance than a game changer in ways that matter. I also have hyperacusis which doesn't effect me much either other than I am reminded too often I have a low threshold for noise.

Be positive and hopeful about your lives. Stay away from loud sound exposure. Protect your ears and have fun.

 

[Tom Cnyc]

truth is your tinnitus will almost definitely fade if you're that young.

even the guys that talk the most about habituation being the only treatment say that in MOST cases tinnitus goes away over time.

Yes, it can be permanent and is for most people on this board. that said, you should know that I personally know 4 people that had it bad and its mostly gone for them. it did take 1-3 years for 3 of them, and the 4th had it for 10 years and it slowly faded once he stopped going to concerts after he had a kid. it's such a non issue for them I HAD NO IDEA THEY HAD IT until I was freaking out about mine.

mine is 1/3 the intensity it was 10 months ago 95% of the time. the other 5% it does kick my ass though. I'm confident in 2 years it'll be less than 1/10th the intensity it started as and rarely if ever spike.

@stophiss is right. You HAVE to stop with the headsets. I know its fun for shooters but its just a bomb going off in your ear constantly. I'm a musician and DJ'd for years, so giving up headphones has been rough for me... but its proven to be worth it.

get some decent earplugs, carry them around, and when shit gets loud put em in. you'll probably be fine in a year or so.